You will find general information about our Garian's
Mandala below; but if you would like to move more directly to some of the
details, here are some choices:

For a detailed explanation of the geometrics and philosophies
contained in Garian's Mandala: Click here.

Garian's Mandala

It should be noted that Garian's Mandala is not a religious
or historical mandala. It arises from our own personal, creative work as
Territory Orphans and as such is new and unique. In another sense though
it is quite old and universal, made up of and containing indigenous harmonics
and interconnections to other, more widely known and practiced ways. Each
of us has hidden inside ourselves such a personal mandala, but all mandalas
emerge from and refer to the same essential place that gives rise to the
form of the world.

Mandalas are often presented
in two dimensional form, as a sand mandala for instance or as an image on
a piece of paper or scroll. Mandalas are actually three or four (or more)
dimensional configurations. The other dimensions have been dropped down
to the two dimensional plane for ease of communication and storage. Garian's
Mandala is multi-dimensional as well. In the installation you will see two central pyramids formed by string.
On the two dimensional representation of Garian's Mandala these two pyramids
become squares. It is interesting to compare the two dimensional image of
Garian's Mandala with the three dimensional installation.

In the installation there are
seven meditation mats inside the yellow pyramid. These are seats
(one for each of the seven energy chakras) and are used when following Garian's
meditation practice. There are many different levels of this practice (which
we are beginning to remember), but basically the practice is to visualize
Garian's seven chakras.

In the installation the seven
chakras are displayed in more universal form outside the pyramid. The Root is a cave, the
Hara a hut, the Will chakra is
a stupa, the Heart is a pool, the Throat a grove, the 3rd
Eye a stone slab, the Crown chakra
is a glass tree. These presentations are not the same shapes as are visualized
inside the pyramid, but show how Garian's chakra energies pervade the Territory.
There are also a number of lightforms
throughout the space that are indigenous parts of the Mandala landscape.

As we've been working we've started to remember a universal
"mandala language" that seems to be accessible and useful. In
Garian's Mandala there are circles enclosed by squares which touch the inscribed
circles at the midpoints of the sides of the squares. The circle itself
contains a smaller square which touches the circle at its corners. Circles
mean "consciousness" in this mandala language. Squares refer to
a "place" or "landscape" - "that which takes form".
As an example consider the following:

If we were to designate the outer square as the Territory
Orphanage (the "place" of our studio), the inscribed circle as
"conscious work", and the inner square as Garian (the mandala
deity that takes form in the house of the mandala), this part of the mandala
would "read": consciousness inside the Territory Orphanage gives
rise to Garian. Or read another way you could say: conscious action in the
Territory Orphanage enables one to see and interact with Garian

It is interesting to note that the whole of Garian's Mandala
does not fit into the space inside the place of the installation. The walls
of the installation place correspond (on three sides) to the outer boundaries
of the Territory square. This is because we are presenting Garian's Mandala
from the subjective position of someone already in the Territory level of
consciousness. We hope to help visitors switch into this Territory frame
of mind by presenting paths to follow when they first enter. Later on we
will use events and other performance related modes to help in this regard.
We also assume that visitors are familiar with the everyday world point
of view (each in their own way) and are interested in going inward from
that place of perception.